Reviews & Commentary

I really want to like THE BOYFRIENDS movie series. A late teenage version of OUR GANG actually seems like a good idea but these movies generally have weak acting, weak stories, and yes weak direction from the later acclaimed George Stevens. It's easy to see just why this series did not catch on and why it has languished in complete obscurity until TCM proved once again they will show anything old regardless of quality (not that that's a bad thing!) and began occasionally airing these films as filler between features in the last decade.

BLOOD AND THUNDER is one of the weaker movies in the series. Mickey Daniels' sister and the gang are practicing a play at his house after Mickey is ordered away from the house by her. He sneaks in and overhears them, thinking the gang is blackmailing his sister because she has an illegitimate child!! It's hard to determine the bigger surprise, such a blatant "pre-code" misunderstanding for a kid-friendly movie or Mickey being such an idiot to think his sister could have had a baby without him being previously aware of it. Meanwhile the borrowed baby (from a babysitter) for the play wanders off from the gang to go downstairs to Mickey and in a more stupid move (and one so irresponsible as to kill any comedy potential in the movie) Mickey sticks the baby in an open door delivery truck in the neighborhood to get rid of it, apparently to remove the "evidence" of his sister's wanton ways. Eventually Mickey learns they were only rehearsing a play and now he gets a conscience and goes to retrieve the child who in a traveling in the back of an open door delivery truck! This is not funny, this is scary! Lots of lame slapstick comedy ensues. The only funny thing about this movie is the irony when the teens badly deliver their play lines as rough, unprofessional actors which is not all that different from their standard performances in this series.